Shock to the system

The NFL is back -- with a violent vengeance

I was excited as the next guy about the beginning of the NFL season: Stoked to see Madden and Michaels on Monday Night Football, intrigued by the expansion Texans, eager to see young Jeremy Shockey on the big stage. Like most of you, I was ready for some football.

Things went well enough. Madden was sharp, Michaels was smooth and they bantered easily. The Texans lost to the Giants in the NFL's annual Hall of Fame game, but en route unveiled David Carr, who showed great calm to complement his weird, super-quick release. And Shockey? Well, Shockey went 80 yards on four catches and brought the Canton, Ohio, crowd to its feet.

If you're like me, and you missed the late-night debut of the Spurrier show last weekend, it has been six months since you watched an NFL game. Last summer I covered a few NFL training camps, so I was prepared for the game's return. Not this year. Since the Super Bowl, I'd disappeared into the non-football sports world, into the relative peace of the NBA and the NHL, and then the sweet, soft calm of baseball season. I hadn't re-read Don Delillo's End Zone. I hadn't come across a retired NFL player who could barely walk. In short, I'd forgotten what football was all about.

Then came the second quarter of Monday's game, when Texans safety Leomont Evans put his head down and crashed into Giants tailback Sean Bennett on a punt return. By football standards, as Bennett would later observe, "It wasn't an especially hard hit."

Still, the collision jarred Evans' spine, we saw him collapse and then lie motionless on the field. We watched as he was strapped onto a stretcher and carried off. We observed as a circle of Giants knelt in prayer. We heard the familiar hush, then the supportive applause of the crowd. We watched a few commercials. Then Madden and Michaels came back on and the game continued. The latest, as I have it, is that Evans can walk and was released from the hospital Wednesday and cleared to begin rehabilitation. But at age 28 his NFL career may be over.

When you haven't watched football for a while and then you witness it, you feel slightly amazed that someone doesn't get hurt on every single play. No sport, save boxing, even comes close to this kind of violence. Spend a little time on the sidelines and you start to develop an immunity to it -- the crashes and crunches are just part of the rhythm of the game. But take a step back, take a new look and it suddenly seems that even in the manic post-play celebrations a guy could get hurt. (Invariably, each season, a couple of players do.)

Evans was only the worst of it Monday. In the fourth quarter, Houston wide receiver Trevor Insley's left ankle broken was broken when he was tackled -- again, not "especially hard" -- by New York's Martin Maurer. Once more, the game was stopped. We watched Insley, too, get carted off. We learned later that he's done for the year.

Through those dark clouds came Shockey, powerful as a Hurricane. Among all the yardage gained, there was his great play in the second quarter, the one that, we are told, people will be talking about for years to come.

Shockey caught a short pass -- maybe 10 yards out from the line of scrimmage -- and went to work. He is 6-foot-5 and weighs 255 pounds. He blithely knocked down one Texans defender, then barreled over another. As he churned downfield, the crowd was well into it. Along came Houston safety Kevin Williams, angling in at high speed, aiming to cut Shockey off. Shockey simply raised his left elbow and drove it hard into Williams' face mask. Williams crumpled, and Shockey raced on. Shockey, it is clear, has that streak of intuitive violence that great ballcarriers seem to possess.

Williams lay sheepishly on the ground (he was -- and again, this is difficult to believe -- unhurt) as the Giants players whooped and cheered their tight end's brutal, successful romp. This was 20 minutes after Evans had been carried away, not long after those same players had gathered in prayer. "If you don't get excited about a play like that," said Giants coach Jim Fassel would say of Shockey's hard run, "not much will excite you in football."

Ah yes, football. It's back. Are you ready?

 

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